RECONSIDERATIONS ON THE EFFECTS E-PORTFOLIOS ON EFL STUDENTS’ SPEAKING ACHIEVEMENT

Abstract

Emerging in the EFL classroom since the last decades, e-portfolios have been appreciated and preferred as a promising teaching, learning, and assessing tool. Various studies have been carried out to investigate the impacts of e-portfolios in English language education. The current research aims at examining the effects of e-portfolio on EFL students’ speaking achievement. A quasi-experimental design was conducted with thirty undergraduate Vietnamese EFL students in two groups over a fifteen-week semester. The data collected from students’ speaking pre-test and post-test scores illustrated the marginal effects of speaking e-portfolios on students’ achievement. This result suggested various underlying reasons, including insufficient intervention time, students’ low proficiency, and weaknesses in the speaking e-portfolio design. Several recommendations on incorporating e-portfolios into the English training program in a university context were put forwards, such as considering the speaking e-portfolio workload, e-portfolio task types, and developing students’ sense of control over their e-portfolios by involving them in the assessment design process.